Tarek Wagih Hamdy is an architect and interior & furniture designer located in Egypt. In addition to his architectural designs, Tarek has created several lines of furniture and accessories where he creatively synthesizes his interest in minimalism with the poetics of classical Islamic art and design employing calligraphy and geometric patterns.
The work of the late Hassan Fathy, renowned for his unique style of architecture further influenced him, furnishing him with a new perspective on the authentic proportions and detail of Arabic and Islamic architecture and design. He was also greatly influenced by the work of Luis Barragan and Mies van der Rohe which taught him that the true raw material of architecture is a place rather than mass.
Along with these professional influences, Tarek has sustained a lifetime passion for Arabic poetry and heritage, inspiring him to combine the rudiments of Islamic and Arabic aesthetics with his re-exploration of the meaning of ‘place’ in modern Egypt.
WHAT WOULD MAKE YOUR SOUL SING? WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?
Reading or talking about the truth of architecture
A CHILDHOOD STORY THAT ANNOUNCED THE CREATIVE PERSON YOU ARE TODAY
Spending hours with my wooden building blocks.
BEST CONTEXT EVER FOR INSPIRATION WAS
Old houses of Cairo.
THE PROJECT YOU LOVED MOST
All my courtyard house designs and my Cordoba table.
THE PROJECT OTHERS LOVED MOST
My design for Dr. Ahmed Okasha’s Mental Health Resort and my Sicily table
THE BEST THING ABOUT EGYPTIAN CREATIVITY IS
Sometimes it is genuinely rooted in tradition.
BEST STATEMENT OF EGYPTIAN HUMOR
Adel Imam’s comic statement: “Knowledge cannot be weighed in eggplants”
ADVICE FOR INTERNATIONAL HEADHUNTERS, RELATED TO EGYPTIAN CREATIVES
Look for Authenticity-In general!
BEST PLACE IN CAIRO
Islamic Cairo in general.
BEST PLACE IN EGYPT
The Nile in Aswan, definitely.
MOST DISTURBING CLICHÉ ABOUT EGYPT, IN THE MEDIA OUTLETS OF THE WORLD IS
The most overused cliché is that Egypt is just a desert.
EGYPT SHOULD BE KNOWN FOR
Civilization.
YOUR VIEWS ON SPIRITUALITY
I’m a Muslim who is always “on the way”.
YOUR VIEWS ON MONEY
We are not here to be rich!
AN INSPIRATION SOURCE YOU RECOMMEND FOR A YOUNG CREATIVE
Heidegger’s “Being & Time” is a book that should be a foundation for understanding man and his experience in the world.
AN EGYPT BASED TALENT THAT DESERVES TO BE PROMOTED AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL, AS EXPONENT OF LOCAL CREATIVE SPIRIT
The team behind “Rwaat Al-Hadeeth Museum” at “Community Design Collaborative-Dr. Abdelhalim Ibrahim”, who includes several female designers as well.